CAIRO A roadside bomb in northern Egypt killed a civilian and injured three policemen on Friday in the second attack on the security forces in a day, security sources said.The latest attack in the Kafr El Sheikh governorate in the Nile Delta followed a bombing in Cairo in which six policemen were killed in an attack claimed by an Islamist militant group. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in northern Egypt #corrections#facebook#follow-reuters#reuters-news-agency#Thomson Reuters#twitter-follow

By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS The United Nations General Assembly voted 122 to 13 on Friday to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria, humanitarian aid access throughout the country and an end to all sieges, including in Aleppo.Thirty-six countries abstained in the vote on the Canadian-drafted resolution on the nearly six-year-old Syrian conflict. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's besieged rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad."This is a vote to stand up and tell Russia and Assad to stop the carnage," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the General Assembly before the vote. #Business#crisis#Entertainment#Iraq#Syria#United Kingdom

By Harriet McLeod | CHARLESTON, S.C. CHARLESTON, S.C. Jurors in the federal hate crimes trial of Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine people at a historic black church in South Carolina last year, on Friday watched a video of the avowed white supremacist calmly telling investigators "I did it."Roof's lawyers have not disputed his guilt on the charges of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations, for which the U.S #Argentina#article#Crime#Economy#India#science

By Liana B. Baker Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp is in talks to acquire InvenSense Inc, a U.S. chip maker that produces motion sensors for Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.The deal would allow TDK, already a major smartphone components supplier, to boost its sensor technology offerings. #Entertainment#India#Japan#markets#Middle East

By Francesco Canepa and Huw Jones | FRANKFURT/LONDON FRANKFURT/LONDON The European Central Bank hopes its decision to confront struggling Italian bank Monte dei Paschi at last will draw a line under a multi-year crisis that has risked tarnishing its reputation as a credible supervisor.Reuters exclusively reported on Friday that the ECB rejected Monte dei Paschi's request for more time to complete an ambitious, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) cash call - effectively leaving it up to the Italian government to bail out the bank.ECB officials told Reuters they hoped that a "precautionary recapitalisation" of Monte dei Paschi by the Italian state will pave the way for similar injections of government money into other Italian banks plagued by bad loans totalling 360 billion euros.A precautionary recapitalisation is a type of state intervention in a struggling bank that is still solvent.It means only a modest bail-in or write down in the value of a bank's bonds is likely, though the Italian government can buy shares or bonds in Monte dei Paschi only on market terms endorsed by EU state aid officials in Brussels."There is consensus that Monte dei Paschi needs a precautionary recap," one of the officials said, requesting anonymity. "Once that is done, it could serve as a template for other banks."This scenario is subject to a number of open political questions, such as who will be in the new Italian government following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's decision to resign and how much fiscal room the European Commission is prepared to give Rome for bank rescues.A government-led recapitalisation will also raise questions about whether rules introduced since the 2007-09 financial crisis to prevent taxpayers having to fund bailouts in future banking crises have been worth it. Monte dei Paschi's problems date back several years but until now the ECB, as the bank's main supervisor since November 2014, has avoided confronting matters head on.This is despite the bank failing the EU's regular stress test of lenders twice in a row - the latest was in July this year - showing how Monte dei Paschi is suffering from bad loans and too little capital.Further delays by the ECB would start to undermine its reputation as a banking supervisor or single supervisory mechanism (SSM) that is meant to cut through national vested interests in the euro zone."Monte dei Paschi is an existential question for the ECB, a matter to act for its own credibility," said Karel Lannoo, chief executive of Brussels think tank CEPS. #adchoices#corrections#follow-reuters#newsletters#reuters-news#twitter-follow

FRANKFURT The European Central Bank contemplated even bolder stimulus measures than it agreed at Thursday's meeting but scaled back in a compromise move when conservatives, joined by several swing voters, pushed back, two sources with direct knowledge said.Much of the ECB staff's preparation centred on a six month extension of its bond buying programme at a steady pace of 80 billion euros per month but ECB President Mario Draghi recognised that the proposal did not have a majority so he pushed for a compromise deal, the sources told Reuters.The ECB then suggested a 12 month extension at 60 billion while more conservative nations were converging on six months at 60 billion. This led to the eventual compromise on nine months that still left Germany's Bundesbank in opposition but gave some other hawks enough to secure a majority, the sources said.The ECB declined to commentThe compromise illustrates the tension within the Governing Council and the fatigue with quantitative easing as inflation remains far below the target and growth is still weak, even after 1.5 trillion euros of asset buys. But with elections looming in four of the euro zone's five biggest economies, the bloc is facing increased uncertainty, essentially forcing the ECB to maintain extraordinary support. #Entertainment#India#lifestyle#Middle East#United States